Gingerbread Black Tea

This is my third attempt at drinking this tea before it goes cold. I got a few sips in while it was hot, then I got caught up reading an article on “How to Speak Like a Maritimer”. It was amazing. It described us to a tee, and I loved it. But, rookie mistake, now I’m homesick.

Okay this tea. I did enjoy the few sips I managed while it was hot, but maybe I’ll try again tomorrow after work. Definitely has some gingerbread going on. Very true to taste from the little amount I can base that from. I’m not so much loving it cold.

I love this tea, this was the perfect wake-up call for a big, busy day ahead.

They really have captured that breadiness that real gingerbread cake has. The spices are sweet and mild – definitely a kid-friendly type of gingerbread as opposed to a sharper, zingier one. (I’d personally like a zingier one, but I can’t fault them here.) I see cloves in the mixture, but I don’t really taste them – it’s primarily cinnamon and ginger to me. As per the usual for S&V, I need to use a lot of it per cup, and I’ve found all the dessert type teas are far better with a pretty generous sweetening. I haven’t tried this with milk, but I bet a little would be good.

Holiday Tea-son! I got to try a sample of this from the last Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox, so thank you to tea-sipper for organizing and any and all participants!

This tea really nails the aroma, as it has a very sweet, spicy aroma that does make me think of gingerbread cookies set out to cool, with perhaps a hint more emphasis on the clove. Steeped up, the tea had a lovely gingery orange color, and the aroma had a warm sweetness of cinnamon and clove wafting from the cup.

The body of this tea is a Chinese black (my favorite!) so I found it very smooth with no bitterness or astringency. The flavors are very rich in this tea! The tea itself is on the sweeter side, much like a gingerbread dessert, but the flavor profile has a strong spicy note. A medley of ginger, cinnamon, and clove tingle along the tongue with every sip. The start is a bit sweeter, tasting a bit stronger of the cinnamon and ginger flavors, but the finish holds a very strong burst of clove. It’s a spicy tea, but at the same time the subtle sweetness of the tea keeps the brew very balanced; it isn’t nearly as potent as your typical Indian chai blend, and while you probably could add milk to create a more creamy mouthfeel, I never once felt the need to (as I often do with chais!), as the flavors were so smooth.

While the tea does have a nice natural sweetness, I decided to try a small cup with a dash of sweetner for comparison (though I don’t really sweeten my teas in general these days), just to see if I could bring out more of a gingerbread feel from the brew, and that actually helped a lot! Just a small dash of sugar mellowed out the spices just a bit, allowing the sweet base a little more emphasis, and making the flavor profile feel a little more dessert-like. The spices just seemed to balance a little better with the slight addition of sweet. This is one where a small bit of sugar or honey seems to do it justice.

A tasty spice tea that does remind me of gingerbread with a little sweetner added and leaves a very warm, cozy feeling in the stomach, which is really perfect for setting the mood during cold winter weather.

Here’s Hoping TTB

This is pretty good, although it doesn’t hold a candle to my favorite Market Spice gingerbread tea. Ginger and clove are the main notes with a hint of molasses.

A festively cheery cup, fragrant with clove and nutmeg, with a beautiful copper tone. I drank the first one plain, for the notes, and then made another into a latte, complete with whip and a dash of nutmeg and cinnamon. In other words, I had a decadent dessert for breakfast, and you’re missing out, but I digress!

The nutmeg really carries through to the sip and weighs on the back of the tongue, just like a gingerbread cookie might do.

Besides the typical gingerbread suspects, there’s a mildly buttery mouthfeel and slightly acidic aftertaste from the black tea, the latter of which I wish was a bit better balanced, but I am hardly complaining about anything in this lovely little cup.

Definitely going to have to stock up on a little of this to share with my sisters during the holidays this December. Thanks so much for introducing me to this one, tea_sipper!

Another holiday tea from my recent order!

This one is fairly good, much better than the Nutcracker black tea. It has a nice cookie flavor to it, and notes of molasses and soft spices. The base is a little woodier than I would like, just like the other blend. It dominates a bit at the beginning of the sip, but then the sweeter desserty notes come out and it’s a lovely cuppa.

I’ll have to experiment more with steeping time for these teas to see how I can minimize the woodiness. I don’t mind woody tea, but it just doesn’t go well with gingerbread cookie!

I had the best mail day today. Cameron mailed me a huge package of surprise tea! It made my day. I also got a TTB, so I have a lot of sipping to do.

This is my first Simpson and Vail tea, and I love it. It went straight on my wishlist. It’s gingerbread in a cup. Strong and full of yum.

’Here’s Hoping’ traveling teabox Round #2 // Tea #7
Now I usually don’t like ginger, but whoa, this chai could be on my Top 10 chai list… The dry blend itself looks really well balanced.. the black tea leaves, perfect amount of spices. Oh well, call me a tea nerd, I know! I see cinnamon, ginger, cloves. The flavor is perfect – the right amount of robustness to be tough but not over-power the spices, which is pretty strong itself, but there is also a sweetness.. I’m not sure from what.. maybe the flavoring that should be there? I wouldn’t call this particularly like gingerbread or an unusual amount of ginger. Ginger is my kryptonite, but with chai, it’s okay. I might take the last remaining couple teaspoons of this from the teabox. I think I’ve loved every tea I’ve tried from Simpson & Vail. There will be a S&V order at some point, but definitely not in the next year when I’m already planning on a couple orders.
Steep #1 // just boiled // 3 1/2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min

From the HHTTB2

Helloooooo, clove! There are lots spices here, but the clove is much stronger than the rest. It does remind me of gingerbread, and I can see how this would be nice to have during the fall and winter months. I can see myself picking up a sample size at some point around the holidays.